Ref. Ares(2015)3520196 - 26/08/2015
Brussels 25th August 2015
Dear Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis
Thank you for your letter of 31st July 2015. Your response and active engagement is appreciated and we,
as a group of public health organisations, would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your
personal leadership and commitment.
We welcome your recognition of the conflict of interests between public health and economic interests
as well as your offer to address our concerns by establishing parallel discussions focusing on the “core
business” of the different stakeholders. We are clear that the economic operators are important players
in their role as developers, producers, distributors, marketers and sellers of alcoholic beverages, but at
the same time, we challenge their activities in trying to influence health policy.
The fact that the Forum has not produced concrete results is not due to a conflict between NGOs and the
alcohol industry, but to a lack of strategy which has prevented the Forum from putting in place practical
and effective steps forward.
Indeed, we strongly object to the fact that the Commission has no plans to develop a comprehensive and
specific EU Alcohol Strategy and that there is no indication that future work of the Forum will focus on
improving health outcomes or achieving measurable societal benefit.
We remain committed to working in partnership with you to develop a work programme that prioritises
evidence-based health actions. We therefore propose a scoping meeting with you in September to
discuss potential new terms of engagement and working arrangements between NGOs and the
Commission. On the basis of those discussion and improved commitments to developing measures to
tackle health harm from alcohol, we look forward to continued collaboration.
Yours sincerely,
,
European Alcohol Policy alliance (Eurocare)
,
, European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)
,
Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME)
,
European Cancer Leagues (ECL)
,
, European Association of the Study of the Liver (EASL)
,
t, Alcohol Policy Youth Network (APYN)
,
, European Mutual Help Network for Alcohol related
problem (EMNA)
,
, United European Gastroenterology (UEG)
,
, European Midwives Association (EMA)
,
, Nordic Alcohol and Drug Policy Network (NordAN)
,
, European Medical Students' Association (EMSA)
,
EAHF Science Group
,
Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS), UK
,
, Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP)
,
,
Royal College of Physicians London, UK (RCP)
, Association Nationale de Prévention en Alcoologie et Addictologie (ANPAA)
,
No Excuse Slovenia
, Eurocare Italy
,
Estonian Temperance Union
,
, Alcohol Action Ireland
, German Centre for Addiction (DHS)